Muladi Brigitta - Veszprémi Nóra szerk.: A festmény ideje – Az újraértelmezett hagyomány (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai)
English texts - Introduction: The Time of Realism. Brigitta Muladi
His portraits and floral still lifes are characterized by a relaxed construction method, simplified to the utmost. He pares the subject of his investigation down to the vision that serves as his model and to his own self. He is presented in the company of János Nagy Balogh, a lesser-known painter who considered art a vital necessity, and who is a spiritual kin of the young artist not only on account of his choice of subjects and vision, but also because of what belies his understated colours and forms, an emotionally intense mode of expression. Tamás Lörincz is another contemporary to own spiritual links to János Nagy Balogh, while his self-portraits, the results of dispassionate, extremely honest self-analyses, are the equals of László Mednyánszky's moving portraits, or the family tableaux of the artist of his own choice, Károly Ferenczy. One of the most pregnant forms of the trivial aesthetic is the still life. The still lifes of our youngest artist, Ádám Rolik, who is still at the academy, may at first sight recall more the atmosphere of Morandi's works than those of János Nagy Balogh, in whose company they can be seen, yet Roland Horváth's representation of objects, very painterly and emotional, but also very accurate, strikes a bridge between the two artists, while also encouraging musings on how the vision of an object changes under the influence of lighting, the time of the day, or simply our mood. Though we made sure to include a few paraphrases to provide counterpoints for the other exhibits (e.g. Gyula Konkoly's version of Picnic in May, or Dániel László's Selmecbánya after Csontváry), this is not a display of paraphrases or homages, but an attempt to highlight an approach common to contemporary and classic works. We wanted to show that the idea of painting does not change, and that vision-based painting will always remain a contemporary practice. Tracing back traditions or acknowledging a spiritual attraction to objects of the past, in this case paintings, will help us recognize the fact that a contemporary painter can also create an object whose uniqueness compares with those of the valuables of old, and will reveal a need in certain artists to dissociate themselves from the uniformity-provoking search for novelty. This can go hand in hand with a critical attitude towards the current cultural scene, mass production, the expectations of the "art industry," though the growing value of paintings in recent years, and the "hunger" of the commercial galleries for vision-based painting seem to belie this. Museums in Hungary and abroad are regularly putting up exhibitions that compare contemporary works with the painterly heritage of the recent or distant past. In 2000, for instance, such pairs were featured at Encounters in London as Balthus and Poussin, Freud and Chardin, Kiefer and Tintoretto, Kitaj and Van Gogh, Tapies and Rembrandt, Viola and Bosch, etc. In 2005, Düsseldorf hosted Slow Art - Still Life, Portraits, Landscape, where certain pieces of historical Flemish painting were offset by new work from such contemporary artists as Borremans, Marlene Dumas, Mark Manders, Philip Provily, Luc Tuymans, Ger Van Elk and Cindy Wright. The display ...throughout the Centuries, which opened in Sankt Gallen at the end of 2006, demonstrated the continuity of tradition by presenting historical material together with contemporary art. In 2006 the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest presented Rembrandt paraphrases at its Re-.mbrandt - Contemporary Hungarian Artists Respond, 1 * while this year's Van Gogh exhibition also allowed an insight into the Dutch master's influence on Hungarian painters. The claim that it is a central issue for contemporary art to view the painterly tradition in its relation to vision may seem easily dismissible as a nonproblem. But if we look at these works as the products of an ultraconservative "subculture" of painting, and compare them with the current edicts of contemporary visual art - viz. it is imperative to incorporate in the contemporary work of art the effects of the political system, global problems and ecological dilemmas on the personality of the artist, just as it is necessary to acknowledge technical development and the sign of the times, which is served most efficiently by concept art and such related forms as media art; and if it is painting, it has to be reformed and cannot be traditional -, this retrograde position may occasion important questions. Embracing a style, be it as purportedly anachronistic as realism, can mean a step towards the free choice of personality, the ontological understanding of the prevailing essence of being an artist. Furthermore, the main intention behind the choice is to create a new representation for the past of Hungarian painting. We can also defend the use of trivial realism in the current context with an argument which may lie outside the domain of the discourse of contemporary visual art, but which is far from being irrelevant with regard to the opening towards the public, namely that realism, figurativeness, any kind of representation of reality, whether consciously aesthetic or not, will always cast a spell on the viewer. And the painters may well answer with Gerhard Richter, who, when asked why he was painting trivial still lifes, said "I simply felt like painting something nice." The place of the painting Time is often mentioned in connection with the present exhibition - was discussed by Lehel Kovács in the Szombathely catalogue, and is now explored in detail by Attila Kondor and Zoltán Somhegyi -, but there is less talk of the place. Yet, it is place that is specifically determined, both in a person's life and the cultural and artistic context. The venue of the exhibition, in this case the museum, is a scene where the past is continuously present in the form of objects, so unsurprisingly, this is a place where the contemporary can coexist with classic art. As a venue, the Hungarian National Gallery serves best the concept with regard to the intellectual context. The place is given, as is the value-instilled context. The collection as a whole and the individual works are the keepers of the tradition of Hungarian painting. The painters of the Sensaria Group consider it essential to point out the particular locality they belong to, beside the universe of painting. In the system of relations they drew for themselves, it is central to take as their models artistic work that is locale-specific - i.e. Hungarian -, and it is within this construction that they think it is possible to create autonomous artworks. This relationship justifies a painting that can maintain a dialogue with the Hungarian tradition in a direct, visual manner. Dániel László and Lehel Kovács engages the tradition by painting personal and historical scenes. Attila Kondor does so by emphasizing links with European philosophy: his idealizing land- and townscapes express, with their motionless scenes, the unceasing restlessness of the mind. The time plains meet in his works, and the painting becomes the place where "time" becomes visible. (Attila Kondor's essay in this catalogue, Time of Painting,
